News On Japan

A bridge beam fell in Kobe, western Japan, during extension work for the Shin-Meishin Expressway on Friday afternoon, killing two people and injuring eight others. (Jiji Press)

The South Korean military has suggested that North Korea's apparent launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine ended in failure. (NHK)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday visited quake-stricken Kumamoto Prefecture and pledged to make an all-out effort to help evacuees improve their situation. (NHK)

Nearly 68,000 people in southwestern Japan are living in shelters or in their vehicles, more than a week after strong earthquakes started jolting the region. (NHK)

Japan has lodged a protest with Taiwan over a statement made by its president challenging Tokyo's claim to waters in the Pacific. Ma Ying-jeou described Japan's southernmost island as a rock around which it cannot claim an exclusive economic zone. (NHK)

The US Department of Justice has announced that Japan's Hitachi Chemical will plead guilty to fixing prices of electrolytic capacitors. (NHK)

Nintendo Co. is easing into its newfound role as a mobile game publisher, but not fast enough for investors expecting a Mario-scale hit. (Japan Times)

More than 1,000 seismic events had been recorded in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures by Thursday in the two weeks since a magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck southwestern Japan, while over 30,000 people remain evacuated from their homes. (Japan Today)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Thursday it has given up attempts to restore control of the Hitomi X-ray astronomy satellite with which the agency lost communication. (Jiji Press)

NHK has learned a North Korean cargo-passenger vessel was operating in the same waters as a submarine when the North fired what appeared to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile, or SLBM, last weekend. (NHK)

Police in Chiba City have charged a 29-year-old man over the murder of a 41-year-old woman who was found dead in her apartment on April 4. (Japan Today)

Though Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda played up the positive at Thursday's news conference, economic indicators point to a foundering economy that calls his strategy and his unshakable confidence into question. (Nikkei)

Seismic activity continues in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, southwestern Japan. More than 1,000 quakes, including minor ones, have been recorded since the first powerful tremor on April 14th. (NHK)

One of the major expressways in Japan's earthquake-hit southwestern region of Kyushu fully reopened on Friday. (NHK)

The annual "Golden Week" holiday exodus has begun in Japan. (NHK)

In light of increased numbers of visitors travelling to Japan, the government is overhauling many of the regulations that rule the tourism sector. (insidejapantours.com)

Japan and China were among five economies put on a new U.S. government list used to monitor what it calls possible "unfair" practices in foreign exchange policy, according to a Treasury Department report released Friday. (Kyodo)

An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 4.5 rocked southwestern Japan on Friday afternoon, registering upper 5 on the seismic intensity scale of 7 in Yufu, Oita Prefecture. (Jiji Press)

The Tokyo metropolitan government is planning to make the capital's busiest rail station more user-friendly ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. (NHK)

It's the first day of spring holidays in Japan, when people travel in droves to more leisurely destinations. But this year, many were seen heading southwest for the quake-hit area of Kumamoto Prefecture. (NHK)

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